Psych 1101 Chapter 12 Emotions Stress and Health Emotions emotion a response of the whole organism that involves an interplay among 1 bodily arousal 2 expressive behaviors and 3 conscious experience James Lange theory states that our experience of an emotion is a consequence of our physiological response to a stimulus e g we experience fear because our heart pounds say in response to an approaching stranger one causes another Cannon Bard theory proposes that the physiological response and our emotional experience occur simultaneously e g heart pounding and fear occur at the same time one does not cause the other happen at the same time Two factor theory of emotion focuses on the interplay of thinking and feeling not on the timing of feelings states that to experience emotion one must 1 be physically aroused and 2 cognitively label the arousal The spillover effect occurs when arousal from one event affects our response to other events affective states can be experienced as different emotions depending on how we interpret and label it Arousal fuels emotion and cognition channels it Unlabeled emotion sensory input can follow a pathway that leads via the thalamus to the amygdala bypassing the cortex and triggering a rapid reaction that is outside our conscious awareness e g experiencing an emotion when you hear a song More complex emotions hatred and love require interpretation and are routed along the slower route to the cortex for analysis Automatic emotion and the importance of conscious thinking in emotion illustrate our two track minds Neuropsychology and Emotion Similar physiological arousal occurs during fear anger and sexual arousal Nonetheless these emotions feel different and our facial expressions differ during these three stages For example during fear brow muscles tense happiness muscles around mouth and corner of eyes flex Duchenne smile Brain scans show increased activity in the amygdala during emotional experiences Emotions activate different areas of the brain s cortex The right prefrontal cortex becomes more electrically active as people experience negative emotions such as disgust The left frontal lobe shows more activity with positive emotions Physiological Measure of Emotion Polygraph measures several physiological indicators of emotion for example changes in breathing cardiovascular activity and perspiration Research indicates unreliability too high to justify its widespread use in business government and legal proceedings Experienced Emotion 10 basic emotions joy interest excitement surprise sadness anger disgust contempt fear shame and guilt When people report their experiences of different emotions they all seem to place emotions along the dimensions of pleasant positive versus unpleasant negative the emotion s valence and high versus low arousal On the valence and arousal dimensions for example terrified is more frightened than afraid and delighted is happier than happy Anger Anger is often a response to friends or loved ones misdeeds and is especially common when those acts seem willful unjustified and avoidable Although blowing off steam may temporarily calm an angry person it may also amplify underlying hostility and Expressed Emotion All of us communicate nonverbally as well as verbally Most people can detect nonverbal cues and we are especially sensitive to nonverbal threats Experience contributes to our sensitivity to cues Introverts are better emotion detectors than extraverts although extraverts are easier to read Females tend to read emotions better than males The facial feedback effect indicates that expressions amplify our emotions by activating muscles associated with specific states and the muscles signal the body to respond as though we are experiencing those states General Adaptation Syndrome Selye Selye s General Adaptation Syndrome GAS the body s adaptive response to stress is composed of three stages Phase 1 we experience an alarm reaction due to the sudden activation of our sympathetic nervous system Heart rate increases and blood is diverted to the skeletal muscles Phase 2 resistance temperature blood pressure and respiration remain high and there is a sudden outpouring of stress hormones If the stress if persistent it may eventually deplete our body s reserves during Phase 3 exhaustion with exhaustion we are more vulnerable to illness or even in extreme cases collapse and death Culture and Emotion Although some gestures are culturally determined facial expressions such as those of happiness and anger are common the world over Stress and Health Prolonged stress increases our risk for serious illness and death Behavioral medicine the interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge Stress if not just a stimulus or a response rather it is the process by which we appraise and respond to a threatening or challenging event When perceived as challenges stressors can arouse and motivate us to conquer problems Psychoneuroimmunology psychophysiological illness refers to any stress related physical illnesses such as hypertension and some headaches pyshoneuroimmunology studies how psychological neural and endocrine processes together affect our immune system and health The secretion of stress hormones suppresses the immune system s white blood cells called lymphocytes B lymphocytes are important in fighting bacterial infections and T lymphocytes fight cancer cells viruses and foreign substances Two other agents of the immune system are the macrophage and the natural killer cells NK cells